Reactive hypoglycemia amongst other things.

stackingcups

stackingcups

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Type 3c
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Hi there. Brief history, diagnosed as type 3c diabetic 3 years ago I think after a couple of years of bouts of pancreatitis. However pancreas damage never confirmed, just theorised. HBA1C 72 at diagnosis and put on long acting insulin.

After many recommendations and referrals I had bariatric surgery. Spoiler alert : I'm still fat. But now I can't eat much in one go. After surgery I stopped insulin and HBA1C was down to 35.

My recent hba1ç was 47. I've started hrt within the last 6 months and have started working with a personal trainer at the gym. Keep trying and failing to low carb.

So on a moment of genius I decided to get a libre sensor free trial. Thought I'd maybe scare myself into doing better. However what I had assumed to be false lows, have been low lows. Down in the 3s. Usually after eating something carby, shoots right up and then crashes down.

So now I'm all a bit confused. I'm treating myself like I'm type 2, assuming insulin resistance due to PCOS. I didn't imagine reactive hypoglycemia fitting in with this. Or is it a 3c thing and my pancreas doing odd things. Or a side effect of the bariatric surgery (listed as a known complication)

How would you approach this? Trying a lower carb day tomorrow to see if it's a little more stable.

Apologies for rambling and thanks if you got this far.
 
I’ve used Libre sensors for the last few months and saw this as well after high carb meals. However, it quickly righted itself and a few times a finger prick showed the lows weren’t that low. The sensors can be quite inaccurate when it’s changing rapidly as they are measuring fluid in the skin where the glucose content lags behind blood.
 
Sensors generally overegg the highs and the lows, particularly when levels are rising sharply or falling fast. because of the algorithm they use to try to make up the lag between blood and interstitial fluid. They use the previous readings to extrapolate in order to predict what the current reading will be, so if you are dropping fast it will show you continuing to drop fast during the last 15-20 mins of the drop when your blood is actually levelling out. Then it realises that you didn't actually drop that far and edits the graph. So you will likely find if you look at the daily graph afterwards, it doesn't show you going into "the red" at all or that the highs were not as high as the highest reading you got. They also suffer from compression lows if you lie heavily on your sensor in your sleep. Checking lows with a finger prick is important at least until you get an understanding of how they work with your body.
Obviously, any food which is sending well into double figures regularly and then dropping you fast is not helpful as this glucose variability puts a strain on your body over the long term, so even if you can't manage low carb, you probably need to find slower release carbs than those to limit the spikes and drops..
 
I’d be wondering if it was the bariatric surgery @stackingcups It’s a well-known side effect. I think there are meds that can help. Have you spoken to your surgeon/consultant so they can look into it?
 
Oh ok this makes sense as the graph after had the lows as going down to 4.0. will finger prick today and see what's what.

Haven't spoken to the doctors yet. Surgery was private so I dont have access to the surgeon and team any more.
 
Hope some of the Libre wobbles you have been seeing turn out to be not quite so wobbly as they initially appeared @stackingcups

And hopefully some modest tweaks to your meals might help to reduce the rises and falls into slightly gentler fluctuations while you still have some days of Libre data to experiment 🙂
 
Finally brought my finger prick kit downstairs so I can try and match things up today a bit. Feel like a bit of a mad scientist really
 
stackingcups said:
Finally brought my finger prick kit downstairs so I can try and match things up today a bit. Feel like a bit of a mad scientist really
Click to expand...
Mad scientist goes with T3c, methinks!
 
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